Kindness is our physical, spiritual, inherent nature.
We are all born kind.
As I hold infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Primary Children’s Hospital, comforting them, singing my songs to them, I notice how they respond to me and to each other. When a child vocalizes in fear, pain, or delight, other children respond in kind, with crying in fear or laughing in delight.
As I assist kindergartners at Elementary Schools, I observe their kindness and care for each other. When a child needs something, other children immediately respond to meet their need.
Our kindness can be stifled by experience or training.
Tragically, we often stifle children’s kindness as we prohibit them from helping each other and when we make everything a competition.
We, the people of this nation of united states, can increase our kindness quotient by not inhibiting, but encouraging our inherent kindness.
We can replace competition with cooperation.
If we choose a winner, we have chosen losers.
We can promote cooperation in families, in communities, in education, and occupations.
We can continue, or return to, our inherent kindness!
<==>
Laird
